Cedar Fair Announcements

Probably the biggest news out of Worlds of Fun is that they will be rebuilding their entry plaza from the ground up, adding much needed modernization and an International Plaza where visitors will gather before the park opens and reflect on their day as their visit comes to an end (too bad they are not adding Fury 325 or GateKeeper as well!).

I've felt the park needed a more welcoming, modern entry for many years (since the old main entrance was closed, to be specific!). So this announcement is very good news indeed.

Maybe next year will be the new coaster announcement locals have been calling for since Prowler was built in 2009. We'll see.

Cedar Point's big announcement for 2017 was anticlimactic at best and terribly disorganized at worst. They had already announced the changes for 2017 (Soak City expansion and retheming into Cedar Point Shores; hotel expansions)so there was nothing new revealed at the big, fancy Soak City special event- in fact it was hardly mentioned except for a sign at the entrance that was so mobbed by people taking pictures (that were already on line) that nobody could see it. We then waited in several lines for at least a 1/2 hour to be given a tiny beach ball with a number on it, then had to wait in another line to turn it in for a ticket worth a discount on our 2017 season passes ($50 off, which was a nice discount), then had to wait in another line to actually by our 2017 passes since the discount ticket was only good yesterday. We also could have stood in two more lines for a free popsicle and free hot dog,chips and drink, but we decided it was not worth it and left, going to Cedar Point next door. We, along with many others in the totally disorganized lines, thought that the entire Soak City was going to be open for us to swim in, but most of it was closed, along with the changing rooms. There was nobody telling anyone what we were in line for. Several Cedar Point people were there, and were very friendly when we asked them what we were supposed to do, but they were more interested in talking with each other than with "directing traffic", and there were literally thousands there since it was opened up to everyone with a season pass and the weather was beautiful. Some people in line tried to ask a few passing lifeguards what was going on, and they had no idea either and their English was so limited that they either didn't understand the questions or their answers were impossible to understand.

I sound ungrateful for the discount on our season pass, and the $50 was certainly appreciated, but if Cedar Point is going to have big events like this and open them up to all season pass holders they have GOT to get them better organized. Nobody knew what was going on, where we were supposed to go or what line we were standing in and for what.

The stunt they pulled at KD was pretty atrocious too. They deliberately invited coaster enthusiast groups for a sleepover in the park and had been teasing a possible RMC of Hurler all season only to drop a Planet Snoopy expansion. They've been getting pounded on social media. All of the Cedar Fair announcements make me think that the chain did not meet their expectations for the season. All of the 2017 announcements are value additions, even Mystic Timbers, which as a woodie is significantly cheaper to build than the dive or wing coaster that had been rumored all year.

Cedar Fair is not a company that tends to announce several major additions in a single year. That said, the 2017 lineup seems light even by their standards. Canada's Wonderland has yet to announce, and I could potentially see them adding a big B&M of some sort, but the fact that there has been little hype makes it seemingly unlikely. I also have to wonder if Kings Dominion and/or Cedar Point might potentially have more to announce, as the latter is retiring one of their biggest coasters and the former has had a coaster sitting closed all season long.

I do think that all of the parks are receiving a satisfactory addition, and in some cases that addition is really needed and long overdue. However, the amount of hype generated this year doesn't seem to match what was announced at some of the parks, with Kings Dominion being the worst offender in the chain.

Does anyone else besides me think that Kings Dominion is going to make a second announcement a little later as kind of a surprise kind of like how Six Flags randomly announced their VR coasters? In my opinion, I really don't get why they would do all of this hype simply to piss off coaster enthusiasts, which makes me think that the park has something up their sleeve.

@Juan - They've annoyed coaster enthusiasts in the past, particularly when they announced the first Planet Snoopy expansion. There were tons of rumors flowing about a big coaster in 2013, and they invited ACE and the coaster enthusiasts for the press event the previous fall, and boom, they revealed an updated and expanded kid's area. They did a similar thing and announced a water park expansion the following year.

Kings Dominion's newest coaster is I-305, opening in 2010 and re-profiled out of necessity in 2011. In that time, Busch Gardens down the street has built 2 roller coasters (Verbolten and Tempest), and is set to open another (InvadR) in 2017. The enthusiasts have been waiting patiently as the park has gone longer between coaster additions (new or relocated), or any other big themed ride for that matter (the biggest addition to date has been the off-the-shelf Delirium added this season as Shockwave was retired), than any other park in the Cedar Fair chain.

Cedar Fair doesn't have a track record of making announcements regarding next year's additions only to make more months later, so I'm pretty convinced that Planet Snoopy is all KD is getting. There's a possibility that they may perform another retrack on Hurler, but I would not anticipate the rumored RMC renovation or anything else big to happen for 2017.